Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Rush Limbaugh: Making Logic his Bitch, One Fallacy at a Time

It's just a damn shame when a woman let's herself go this way...

So Rush Limbaugh thinks Michelle Obama is fat, which raises the question - what forty-something mothers-of-two is he using as his baseline? We wish we were that fat. But given that she's a whale, Rush Limbaugh has concluded that Michelle Obama is a hypocrite for advancing her anti-obesity/healthy kids initiative. How can an obese woman who allows herself to be caught dining on short ribs possibly be able to offer dietary advice to children? Therefore the whole initiatve should be scrapped, because "Leaders are supposed to lead. If we are supposed to go out and eat nothing, if we are supposed to eat roots, berries and tree bark, show us how."

This is the kind of logical fallacy that gets you an F in college. Maybe that is why, as his mother put it, Rush "flunked everything" and dropped out of Southeast Missouri State University after a year.* If he had stuck around, perhaps he'd have learned that ad homimen (to the man) attacks - pointing out real or imagined character flaws in opponents to belittle their ideas - are among the least sophisticated or intelligent methods for debating an opinion. The problem is, Rush, that an idea is independent from the speaker and must be considered on its own merits. It has nothing to do with the speaker. Nothing. Not even a little bit. Nada.

Even if Michelle Obama were fat, it is completely immaterial to the argument she is advancing. She could be the size of Andy Reid and still be right about nutrition. Or is Rush suggesting that every professional sports coach who isn't built like a twenty-seven year old Terrell Owens is also a hypocrite? Where is the movement to fire and discredit the coaching advice of Bill Belichick. Sure he's won a couple of Super Bowls, but look at the guy's body, he could be Chris Farley's stunt double. He clearly doesn't eat very well, or put in the hours at the gym. So how can an elite twenty-two year old athelete possibly be expected to take advice from a man who makes XXL sweatshirts look like Under Armor? Can Belichick hit a slot reciever on a seam route? If not, Tom Brady should clearly start tuning the old man out. Because according to Rush, if the person doesn't practice what they preach then the idea itself must be a bad one.

* For those of you keeping score, attacking someone's lack of formal education is an ad homimem attack. It's just that easy.